Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-22

and q true eve. The bowler was al
lowed to deliver the ball from the
hand with the arm out horizontal to
the ground, or at right angles to the
body. There was much more force
III this action, more curve to the ball ;
and coming from greater height, 1t
was harder for the eye of the bats
man to "get sight of it" This was
called round-arm bowling, and the
other was called underhand. The
rule was that the ball should not be
thrown by the use of the wrist, but
that the motion should come from the
elbow and shoulder, and the hand was
to be held during the entire action OF
delivering the ball below the point OF
the shoulder. This rule was
maintained until some dozen
years ago, when batsmen like Lord
Harris of the Marylebone club of Lon
don, the Grace brothers OF London,
and the Newhalls of Philadelphia,
made the bowlers lot so intolerable,
that the rule was relaxed in favor OF
the hard-bested bowler, who is now
allowed to thunder away at his antag-
onist with ball delivered as from a
catapult, the hand being raised high
above the head as the hand swings
around from behind the bowler and
let's 90 of the flying sphere at the
highest point, where it also has ac-
quired the greatest velocity possible.
Such is briefly the history OF the game
in outline, all that a newspaper can
spare room to give.
THE SCIENCE OF THE GAME.
Passing to this part OF the subject,
the reader has already learned that
the contest at all points lies between
the batsman on his defense and the
bowler who attacks his position. This
| is topic of more interest to the
skilled cricketer than to the
novice who has first heard
of the game. So far as the batsman
is concerned, the philosophy OF the
matter is largely embraced in the
principle that his business is defense.
He has to win runs, to be sure, but
instead of that being the prime object
in his mind, it must be most severely
subordinate to the idea of defense.
"Guard your wicket" is warning
which should always be ringing in his
ears. "Cuts," draws" "slips" and
eleg-hits," are most fascinating per-
formances, and are nice points in the
play, but the, are awfully hazardous.
"Straight play" is what wins the
game. While the batsman is on guard
his whole bat, % by Az inches Of
wood, is opposed to the ball to guard
wickets, % by 8 inches. Just prop a
bat up in the block-hole, and hammer
away at it with ball. You will see
it almost of itself defends its post.
Lay the bat across the wicket, or edge
wise, as in the cut, the draw, the slip,
or the bewitching excitement of a
"leg-volley." He has at most by 4
inches of wood before the wicket, and
it may be he was only an inch
| by two or three inches in front of his
stumps. He may leave them without
splinter to defend them.
The most mistaken man in the
world is he who thinks good bowling
depends merely ON brute force.
"Pace" is an excellent thing in ball ,
if it has the other requisites of good
bowling. But pace does not outrank
the other elements. Spofford, the
"demon bowler" of the great Aus
tralian club which visited this coun-
try and played in San Francisco some
eight years ago, was most effective
bowler, and terrible to the best bats
men of America and England. His
pace was simply terrific. Had il
been only swift it had not been for
midable to the batter. But Spofford
bowled with as good judgment as pace.
| With all he was never more effective
than old Cowden Clarke, the slowest
bowler ON record. In short the
science of bowling includes "curves, y
'1engths," and ''twists" as we'll
as "pace." The curves are
gotten by the height of
delivery, and this is the great adj
vantage of "over-arm bowling" The
ball comes down on curve, and the
eye cannot get the range. Curve is
also got from the rise of the ball from
the ground just before reaching the
batsman, and a well pitched ball
from good sod will rise almost on a
perpendicular. The chance of its
shooting" straight in on the ground
makes it all the more dangerous.
''Twists" are given to the ball as they
leave the hand of the bowler, and the
"materialize" so to speak, as the ball
rises from the ground, at the very
moment when, like a flash, the eye
must get the range or lose it, in which
latter event the wicket pays the
penalty. Lengths vary according to
the style of the batter. That ball is
the best pitched which comes nearest
to the batsman before taking the
ground, but must not be so near as to
let him take it ON the "fy." Good
batters will sometimes step out six
feet to get ball in this way.
But above allIthe good bowler studies
his antagonist. He can afford to give
him few good balls and lose few
runs, ii by so doing he can throw the
batsman off his guard for a moment.
The man gets his "mouth watering"
! for just one more leg-volley, "good for
four runs" or cut "good for two. "
He gets it. Yes, and another, and a
third, perhaps fourth. He is dam
gerous batter who, if he once "gets
sight of the ball." it will be "as big
as football to his eye," and he will
stay in half a day. Each favorite hit
he gets throws him more and more off
his guard. He "forms' for the hit be-
fore the ball is delivered. The bowler
slows down the pace, then increases
it; changes the curve or the twist. The
batter is clean off guard. Now is the
time, give him a very slow pace, de-
livered well wide of the wicket, but
with both curve and twist to take the
baels as it passes. The unwary batter
thinks he has the best ball of the
over, that the bowler is wild. Up
goes his bat, away above his head.
He swings around, or "formes," for
his terrific leg battery. He miscalcu-
lates the pace, and "swipes" away too
soon, the ball he thought SO wide OF
the wicket, the curve draws in at each
| foot nf al, ne, a. n \, II 4 -,